Water temp

[RickySan]

Hello all, we are going through a bit of a heat wave here in California. My water temp is at 84 degrees and rising! I don't have a chiller and my corals are having a difficult time adjusting to the heat...and MH do not help out the situation. Any suggestions to cooling my tank?

[EdSnyder]

Turn the thermostat down in your house, and open up the top of your tank. Keep your house at 79, open up the top of your tank, and reduce your light time by an hr or so and you should be in good shape. In the summer months mine stays around 82, I think thats fine.

[MandM]

A fan will also help. Keep an eye on your water level, you can evaporate a lot during the summer. Check powerheads and sump return pump to make sure they are not adding more heat than normal. Good luck, it's almost fall!

[jc-reef]

I had my A/C go out a couple months ago and in addition to the fans, keeping the lights off or only actinics running, I froze several small/medium tupperware containers with RO/DI water and placed into my sump to help keep the temp down. You can also float a couple small bags of ice. I would try to stay away from floating ice in the DT as pocket temp swings could add more stress.

Edit: I just re-read your post and thought you had no A/C...sorry. Like above post stated...adding fans and turning your A/C down a little should help. You could even wait till cooler part of day to run lights.

[Amp2020]

If you know how much RO water you need to top off each day. Then take it and freeze it before dropping it into your sump. I had to run my lights at night when our AC went out during 100+ degree weather. Blowing air over the water surface of the dispay tank will increase evaporation, but blowing the cool air close to the floor over the sump will help even more(evaporation+cooler air). Most of the heat in reef tanks comes from water pumps. Are there any powerheads or unnecessary large pumps running? Try replacing a submerged pump with an external pump to reduce the amount of heat being transferred into your tank. If you can't add enough ice to keep the water temp down, try running 50 feet of airline hose, coiled up in a large cooler full of ice. Surrounding the airline hose with the ice to maximize the contact surface with the ice. Then use a small powerhead to pump water from your sump through the hose and back into the sump. No saltwater should ever make contact with the ice with this method. Or you take the chance of lowering your salinity too much and flooding the room when you're not there. This is more of a radiator made of vinyl hose and cooling it with ice. They also sell portabe AC units that dissepate the heat out a window and can direct the air flow directly at your tank. But I'm sure the cost electricity is really high over there. But at least you would only be cooling one room and not your entire house just for the sake of your tank.

[dots]

Evaporative cooling with a fan is the best choice. Turning off the lights until later in the day helps. Turning on your AC if you have it. Freezing several Gatoraid bottles of water and throwing them in the sump helps temporarily.

BTW, it was 103F here today.....

[RickySan]

Thank you all so much! I did turn off the MH and left he actinic running for the time being, and purchased a small fan to hang from the tank! You were not mistaken as I do not have an AC unit. Most houses\apts building in San Francisco just don’t need them as the weather is usually in the 70’s…Unfortunately, yesterday was not the case! The weather does seem cooler today and is expected to drop in the next few days! Thank you all for the advice and tips!

[Mavrk]

Yeah, we're going to need a sweatshirt tomorrow (or at least by the weekend). Haha. That random heatwave was brutal.

[Stroob]

I just love the temps here in the Midwest. Highs can go around 100-105 in the summer and lows to -10 or even lower in the winter.

It's amazing how much cooling a simple fan can do on any size tank to help out.

[gweston]

A fan just blowing in the general direction of the tank makes a huge difference.

This summer during a heat wave I opened my basement door and positioned a fan in the doorway. I rigged my Apex controller to trigger the fan when the temp rose to a certain threshold. It blew cooler air from the basement stairwell across the tank. Even on very hot days, the tank stayed well within the safe range.

[Mavrk]

Wow, what a temperature difference in the last hour. The temperature outside just dropped a lot once the sun went down. My tank is thankful the heat spell is over.

Everything okay in your tank Ricky?

[ninjamini]

I use water bottles filled with RO water that is frozen. Then you can drop them in to chill the water and then refreeze. This way your not changing your salinity at the same time you change your temp. Top offs are better done slow.

Lastly get that temp down at 84 you are in the danger zone.

[neoalchemist74]

I moved to 9,256 ft. in altitude, problem solved!

[Mavrk]

I use water bottles filled with RO water that is frozen. Then you can drop them in to chill the water and then refreeze. This way your not changing your salinity at the same time you change your temp. Top offs are better done slow.

Lastly get that temp down at 84 you are in the danger zone.

I think that the frozen bottle thing is not the best idea for a 20 gallon tank. It would cool it too quickly.

[gsxr750]

Yea sucks not having ac at home. I do have a chiller but I turned off my MH for the past few days that was really hot.

[MandM]

108 today in Sacramento. I'll be glad when this one is over.

[Mavrk]

Yea sucks not having ac at home. I do have a chiller but I turned off my MH for the past few days that was really hot.

Hey... I am in Sunnyvale too. Small world.

[greenbean36191]

The water bottle trick is fine for a 20 gal. There is no such thing as dropping the temperature too fast.

[Uncle Salty 05]

The water bottle trick is fine for a 20 gal. There is no such thing as dropping the temperature too fast.

That must be why people invest so much money on heaters and chillers to keep there temperature stable.:fun5:

[NirvanaFan]

People invest the money to keep them within the acceptable range. There's no reason why some fluctuation in temperature is bad.

[Uncle Salty 05]

People invest the money to keep them within the acceptable range. There's no reason why some fluctuation in temperature is bad.

Some fluctuation is one thing.
"There is no such thing as dropping the temperature too fast." is quite another.
Why acclimate?

[Mavrk]

The water bottle trick is fine for a 20 gal. There is no such thing as dropping the temperature too fast.

Good to know. I guess I fell victim to one of those anecdotal answers. Thank you for setting me straight.

For those new to this forum, Greenbean is one of the most experienced people here.

Edit: Just noticed your tank status Greenbean. Are you going to be starting new tanks or do you still have some of your livestock? It would be cool if you could document any progress if you get your tanks going again.

[greenbean36191]

I don't have the time or money at the moment and to be quite honest work kind of steals the magic of the hobby. I'm traveling too much and spending odd hours at the lab too often. I'll eventually set something else up, but don't have any immediate plans.

[Mavrk]

I don't have the time or money at the moment and to be quite honest work kind of steals the magic of the hobby. I'll eventually set something else up, but don't have any immediate plans.

Well, it's good to see you on the boards anyway.